The Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program Concludes Its Journey in Lisbon
INES_Magazina_News
On July 5, 2025, the ZDB 8 Marvila space in Lisbon witnessed the conclusion of one of the most potent, poetic, and politically vibrant exhibitions of the year: The Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program. This exhibition, running from March 1 to July 5, culminated in a public conversation featuring Rigo23, Lorena Salamanca, Ana Nolasco, and Natxo Checa, offering a powerful finale laden with collective memory, critical reflection, and calls for alternative worlds.
Conversation with Rigo23, Ana Nolasco, Natxo Checa, and Lorena Salamanca at the Closing of the Exhibition “Autonomous Intergalactic Space Program.” ZDB Marvila. July 5, 2025, Lisbon. Photos: Natxo Checa.
A Spaceship Among “Caracoles”: Art as a Practice of Autonomy. The Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program was born in 2009, a collaborative effort between members of the Maya Zapatista Movement and Madeiran artist Rigo23. Since its inception, the show has traveled to cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Vienna, Funchal, and Lisbon, carrying the Zapatista message of dignity, radical imagination, and the construction of alternative worlds that transcend geographical borders. The exhibition is anchored in the First World Festival of Dignified Rage, held in Chiapas in early 2009, and directly echoes the InterGalactic Encounter of 1996, which invited “all planets and galaxies.” This interplanetary gesture is no mere symbolic flourish it embodies the Zapatistas’ intention to transcend the constraints of colonial, capitalist, and nationalist logic by forging alliances “from below and to the left” that transcend the boundaries of time and space.
Zapatista Aesthetics: Wood, Color, Weaving, and Cosmos. Upon entering the exhibition space, visitors are immersed in an environment that displaces conventional museum experiences. Multicolored wooden structures form labyrinthine passages among symbolic edifices—houses, towers, and spiral-like “caracoles.” At the center rests a miniature spaceship, the gravitational anchor of this visual constellation, a playful yet deeply political one. Around it, sculptures, textiles, paintings, and a variety of objects reconstruct the guiding principles and motivations of the Zapatista autonomous territories since 1994. The textiles operate as maps, weaving together the pathways of the exhibition and the struggle it represents. The paintings depict scenes of agrarian labor, ancestral practices in the milpa, daily life in indigenous communities, and cosmological knowledge. They also hint at clandestinity, functioning as a code of resistance and protection for indigenous knowledge against colonization. The exhibition, therefore, becomes a contemplative space for insurgent memory, not merely an archive of the past but a blueprint for imagining dignified futures.
Slumil K’ájxemk’op: When Europe Was Renamed. One of the most emotionally charged moments of the closing event was the recall of the Zapatista delegation’s 2021 journey through Europe, by ship and by plane, during which the continent was renamed Slumil K’ájxemk’op, “Rebellious Land” in Tzotzil Maya. From a Eurocentric perspective, this may appear anecdotal; however, it is, in fact, a profound symbolic inversion of colonial power: the act of naming and re‑existing the world through indigenous epistemologies.
During the final conversation, Salamanca, Nolasco, Checa, and Rigo23 shared travel anecdotes, personal stories, moments of joy and tension, and reflections on the cultural and political potential of art. The tone was intimate and introspective, absent of solemnity or spectacle, focusing on the “hospitality of the margins,” community-building practices, and how these cross-continental encounters have irreversibly challenged our notions of art, history, and futurity.
Art as Spaceship, Trench, and Seed. The Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program offers a sensory, critical, and deeply committed experience oriented toward the practice of autonomy. This is an art that does not merely represent struggle, and it is an active participant in it. The pieces resist isolation from their sociopolitical contexts; instead, they extend, expand, and reimagine them. That central spaceship symbolizes more than an escape from capitalist structures, it embodies a radical imagination of a different universe. Here, science fiction intersects with popular history, and aesthetics transform into a cosmic force of resistance.
Though the exhibition physically closed on July 5, its echo continues to resonate. The ideas, images, and stories woven into ZDB 8 Marvila will remain in the collective memory of its visitors. Far from being a conclusion, the final conversation served as a gateway to new dialogues, encounters, and shared struggles. In a world marked by structural violence, environmental collapse, and widespread anguish, projects like this remind us that other worlds are possible and that political imagination can be as powerful as a barricade, a poem, or a weaving. The Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program does more than map routes across continents; it maps paths between hearts, territories, and insurgent dreams.
The exhibition was hosted by Galeria Zé dos Bois (ZDB), an independent Lisbon institution committed to experimental contemporary art, music, and critical cultural practices. Since its founding, ZDB has opened its space to practices that diverge from the art establishment, favoring collaborative processes, experimental formats, and political and emotional alliances. With this exhibition, ZDB reaffirmed its commitment to art that not only critiques the world but also actively participates in its transformation. The Autonomous InterGalactic Space Program stands as living evidence of that ethos. This show not only occupies physical space but also redefines what is possible, inviting us to imagine the world from different coordinates, with different names, and in other galaxies.
Complete exhibition program available at https://zedosbois.org/programa/programa-espacial-autonomo-intergalactico
All photos, unless otherwise noted, are detailed shots of the “Autonomous Intergalactic Space Program,” a collaboration between Rigo23 and members of the Zapatista Movement. ZDB Marvila, Lisbon. Photos: INES_Magazina.
